News and views about the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and other legislation, schemes and policies impacting the Right to Education of India's Children.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Caste no criteria for RTE admissions, clarifies govt

PUNE:
Financial background and not caste is the eligibility criteria for
securing admissions in schools under the 25% reservation scheme of the
Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, clarified the
state education department.
The director of the state education
department had announced last week that students belonging to
SC/ST/OBC/NT and with family income below Rs 1 lakh were eligible for
admissions under the RTE scheme. It had created confusion among parents,
schools and activists.

The department was on the back foot on Thursday as it explained its earlier statement as a 'technical error'.
A notice issued by the state education department last week stated that
only students from the scheduled caste, scheduled tribes, other
backward class, nomadic tribes and denotified tribes having family
income below Rs 1 lakh would be eligible to apply for admission into
private unaided schools under the RTE scheme.
The government
notification created furore among parents and schools alike as the open
category students from the economically weaker sections were ignored
completely.
Mahavir Mane, state director of education (primary)
on Thursday, clarified : "The notification will be reissued after
correcting the error. No caste and religion barriers will influence
admissions under the 25% reservation scheme of the RTE. A fresh
notification will be issued at the earliest."
The principal of a
private school said, "If the government is creating caste barriers in
admissions, then why have they set the income ceiling? It was a bit
confusing. We are now waiting for the new notification so that we can go
ahead with the admission process and also consider the open category
applications for this scheme."